What’s the Best Hosting Company for You? That Depends

There’s no perfect hosting company that works for everyone, it just doesn’t exist.

Some people want the absolute cheapest hosting, and don’t care about anything else.

Others are running a $1 million website, and are looking to upgrade to the fastest and most reliable host.

Most of us are somewhere in between: web hosting that won’t break the bank, but offers a good value.

Before we get too far, take a look at some of our top rated hosts below, then join me later to get into what web hosting actually is.

What is a Web Host?

A web host is a service that stores files for you in the cloud to power your website. The best way to think about it is that all the files for your website are similar to a collection of Microsoft Word docs. Instead of storing the Word docs on your desktop computer, you’re storing them on someone else’s computer in a huge warehouse somewhere.
Your files are stored on something called a server, which is essentially very similar to a desktop computer. It stores your files along with many other files from many other people, for efficiency.

How Does Web Hosting Work?

Let’s get a bit more technical. Your website is made up of a collection of text, images, video, and code. This all has to be stored somewhere. Websites are made up of pages of HTML. Inside the HTML is your text, images, video, and other content. These HTML pages together link to each other and form your website.
Your website files have to be stored somewhere because anytime someone wants to visit your site, they’re requesting to look at your files. It’s similar to how if your boss wants to read that monthly report, he’s requesting to look at the PDF document, so you send it to him via email. A website is just like that except a bit more efficient. Instead of everyone emailing you every time they want to see your documents, you just put it public online so they can see the documents at any time.
So all of your website files are stored on a server. While you technically can build your own server and have it sitting in your basement, it’s not the most practical thing to do. One, if you’re not an IT person, it’ll take quite a bit of work to learn and set up. Two, it’s not very secure to host your website in your basement because any flood, fire, or power outage would take down your site. Third, it takes work and maintenance to keep servers running and up to date.
Web hosting services handle all of this for you. They range anywhere from a few dollars a month to hundreds of thousands.
The hard work is deciding which option is the best for you. There are many